The Art of the Workaround
While riding to the office on Thursday, life added an unexpected to-do to my list. Avoiding a car that suddenly stopped to avoid another car’s u-turn didn’t work out so well, and I spent a couple days in Vancouver General getting patched up.
My dominant right arm will be in a sling for at least six weeks. I’m ambidextrous on the computer, but quickly finding just how many two-handed moments in life I take for granted.
Making way around the house today and thinking of the learning curve I’m in for, Jane McGonigal’s story of recovering from a head injury through an inventive game came to mind. My situation isn’t as serious as what Jane faced; my arm will get better in time, and out of curiosity I see a cool opportunity on hand (yes, it’s a pun).
The J. Walter Weatherman Game
Named for the fictional one-armed man of lessons and a personal favourite from “Arrested Development,” the game centres on what I can learn about ergonomics and accessibility. Here’s how it’ll work:
- Every time I figure out how to do a two-handed operation with one hand: 50 points
- Every practical design improvement I come up with in doing so: 100 points
- Every design improvement I blog about: 150 points
The goal is to hit 50 points per day. Every day I don’t hit the goal scores -25 points.
To kick things off, I scored 150 points today by learning how to move my espresso setup in one action, open jars and tamp an espresso dose with one hand. The demo is in this video shot by Kathleen, who came over to treat me to breakfast.
Links
I’ll be tracking the next six weeks’ progress on the J. Walter Weatherman Game page
Jane’s post on Super Better, the game she invented to aid recovery from head injury.
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Faced with your situation, most people would simply whine and complain. It’s great to be reminded that staying positive is the only way to just keep going, learning from new “opportunities” and most importantly be pleasant to be around.
I think that your idea is a fantastic one and I’d be more than happy to hold the camera any time.
PS: the link to your j.walter weatherman… page is broken. You seem to have an extra ” at the end.
Thanks Christine, I’m going to take you up on the offer to cover camera duty. I have my share of moments where I’m bummed about it all, but know that staying positive and active is important to help the body heal. Not to mention I don’t want to tax the good will of people helping me out!
I fixed the link, thanks for the tip-off on that.